In an interview with Russia's Tass news agency published Tuesday before a visit to Moscow next week, Tsipras says he considers sanctions to be a "road to nowhere" and that the reciprocal embargo Russia has imposed on food from the European Union has "seriously damaged" his country's economy.

The U.S. and the EU imposed crippling economic sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Moscow retaliated by banning most Western food imports.

Since being elected in January, Tsipras' coalition government between his radical left Syriza party and a small right-wing nationalist party has advocated warmer ties with Russia.